This movie just may be my favorite western of all-time. It definitely my favorite production design of any Western ever. It's just so beautiful to look at. The town of El Paso, amazing. Easily my favorite western town ever, no one else comes close. I just smile looking at the scenes in El Paso, as Leone instructed the genius Carlo Simi, the town became a character in the movie. The hotel rooms, specifically Mortimer's room, so awesome. The bank. the armed guard eating the fattest sandwich I have ever seen. The El Paso saloon, my favorite Western saloon.And the White Rocks saloon, full of cigar smoke and piano music and whores and card games and gunmen. The empty Tucumcari saloon, with just the piano player -- who stops playing when a stranger enters, of course -- and the great, fat bartender. (A Western Fat Moe?) Indio's gang's hideaway, the Mexican-style Cantina in Agua Caliene, the stone corrida, the town of Agua Caliente with the hills in the background, in the magificent sunlight at high noon on the right side of the screen as Angel Eyes goes off into the sunset on the left of the screen!

Ahhh, such a beautiful movie to look at. Thank God for the genius Carlo Simi

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There are three types of people in the world, my friend: those who can add, and those who can't.

so I just started watching a whole bunch of Eastwood-directed movies. Used to be I'd watch a movie if I heard good things about it. But then I started noticing that every motherfucking Eastwood movie I was watching was so damn good -- including those that have low ratings on imdb -- so I said, that's it, I am just gonna go to Netflix and rent every Eastwood-directed drama there is, whether or not I have even heard of it.

Well, the first 4 I rented were Breezy; A Perfect World; Play Misty for Me; and White Hunter Black Heart. I'd never heard of any of them and just watched them cuz I am on a Eastwood-watching trip now. And guess, what, from those for movies I saw, each one gets at least an 8/10 rating! How awesome is that. I then saw The Beguiled (starring Eastwood but directed by Don Siegal) and it was awesome too, it gets an 8/10

And btw, I have still never seen Million Dollar Baby (though I know the whole plot by now) and I think Unforgiven is overrated. But it's just unbelievable how many movies he has made that rank between "solid" and "masterpiece." Besides the ones I mentioned above, I'd say Josey Wales, Absolute Power, Blood Work, Bridges of Madison County, Mystic River, Gran Torino; every one of those ranks somewhere between a 7.5/10 -- 10/10

Eventually, I am sure I'll see something of his that'll ruin it, but he has such a reliably consistent record

« Last Edit: March 02, 2013, 06:10:39 PM by drinkanddestroy »

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There are three types of people in the world, my friend: those who can add, and those who can't.

Ahhh, such a beautiful movie to listen to. Thank God for the genius Ennio Morricone.

No doubt. But my point is that you don't hear Carlo Simi's name mentioned as much as Ennio Morricone's (obviously, most people care more about music than production design), but IMO Simi's production design is as important an element of Leone's films as anything else

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There are three types of people in the world, my friend: those who can add, and those who can't.

No doubt. But my point is that you don't hear Carlo Simi's name mentioned as much as Ennio Morricone's (obviously, most people care more about music than production design), but IMO Simi's production design is as important an element of Leone's films as anything else

OK, but why stop there? Why no love for Massimo Dallamano's cinematography? What about the editing done by Alabiso and Serralonga? How about Valerii's second unit work?

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That's what you get, Drink, for not appreciating the genius of When You Read This Letter.